Savings & Investments

Planning your investments

Unlike savings, which are easily accessible funds set aside for a specific purpose, investments are designed to be held for a longer term – usually at least five years. Before you invest you need to be comfortable tying up your money for the relevant period.

People have different reasons for investing. You might be saving for your children’s university fees or a deposit for a house. You may have been left some money in a will. Whatever your reason, once you’ve made the decision to invest there are many ways to make your investments go further.

We can help you plan effectively for the future by developing a bespoke investment solution based on your goals, timescales and tolerance to investment risk.

These are just some of the factors we consider when developing your investment planning package:

• The amount you want to invest
• The level of risk you are willing to take
• What access you need to your money
• Making use of available tax-free ISA allowances
• Taking advantage of pension contribution tax relief
• Your ethical values

With hundreds of different opportunities available, good investment advice from a reputable Independent Financial Adviser is invaluable.

Whether you want to invest on a regular basis or as a one-off, we can provide the help and advice you need, and can offer impartial advice on:

• ISAs
• Investment Bonds
• OEICs
• Unit Trusts
• Investment Trusts

 

Lump sum investments and portfolio management

We can apply our many years of experience to help you source and manage your investments effectively. For many clients we simply review their existing investment arrangements, because very often they would prefer access to a wider range of investments or they no longer wish to deal with the day to day running of their investment portfolios.

Our approach to portfolio management has a number of key stages:

Fact finding

In order to give accurate advice, we need to understand your circumstances in detail. This will involve an in-depth discussion to cover issues such as your tax situation, personal circumstances and your aims and objectives. 

Risk assessment

We use an “attitude to risk” questionnaire which uses relatively simple questions to test your understanding and tolerances for investment volatility and risk. 

Portfolio recommendation

We use a range of independent research tools to assess investments (such as Citywire, OBSR and Morningstar). In addition, we attend regular briefings from investment fund managers.

You will receive a detailed report from your adviser setting out the details of their recommendations. 

Review and portfolio rebalancing meetings

We aim to ensure that the portfolio recommendation you receive remains relevant for your circumstances. However, individual circumstances can change, so we will typically recommend an ongoing review process. This will normally be on a six-monthly basis.

The review meetings normally include:

• A review of your investments performance
• An asset allocation review
• A fact-finding update to capture any changes to your circumstances

As a fully Independent Financial Adviser, we’re free to look at investment options right across the market. This means we can provide informed and impartial advice on a huge range of financial products.